Taking advantage of his small stature, Song Ning avoided becoming the target. He circled around behind the man, picked up a wooden stick, and aimed it at the man's joints.
The man's legs buckled and he collapsed to the ground. Song Ning shouted, "Quickly tie him up!"
After tying the man to the tree trunk, Song Ning turned to the other person and asked, "Did he eat something?"
The man was embarrassed and stammered, "Just now... I saw a red fruit tree over there with a lot of fruit on it... Da Shan, Da Shan ate one, and this is what happened after I ate it."
Song Ning then looked at their basket, which contained some mushrooms.
"Throw them away, they're all poisonous."
Upon hearing this, everyone quickly emptied the mushrooms from their baskets and dared not look at them again.
Song Ning sighed: "Now I finally understand why none of the people who went up the mountain before came back."
"In this state, he doesn't even recognize people, so how could he know the way? In this desolate wilderness, if he goes crazy like this, how could he possibly survive to get back?"
Once hallucinations begin, you won't know what you're doing. You might accidentally step into an empty space and fall to your death, or roll off to who knows where.
Ultimately, it's all because they're hungry. If they could eat and drink their fill, who would want to come here?
"Is he alright?" the village chief asked worriedly.
It seems to be just a bout of madness with a mild allergic reaction, but no other symptoms. It's probably just hallucinations.
Song Ning was used to such scenes. Once, her friend had hallucinations after eating mushrooms, thinking she was a monster and going crazy trying to kill her. In the end, she had no choice but to tie her up and send her to the hospital.
"It should be fine, it's just hallucinations caused by poisoning, it will be fine in a while."
The village chief remained silent for a long time. If his son had had someone like Song Erya by his side back then, perhaps he would still be alive. Unfortunately, those people weren't so lucky...
After that, people no longer dared to pick up things randomly. A group of grown men were no match for a teenage girl.
"Er Ya, we were short-sighted before," the village chief said with a mixture of apology and approval.
Finding food on the mountain and thinking of the villagers first, instead of eating it all by himself, shows a magnanimity that is not common among ordinary people.
Moreover, if it weren't for her, they probably wouldn't have been able to get down the mountain today.
I used to think that she was too young to learn good things, and that she had learned to be mean and sarcastic from Li Guixiang. I thought it was shameful for a young girl to be chasing after a man all day long.
But today, his opinion of Song Erya has completely changed.
Song Erya is a good match for his son.
Song Ning smiled and said, "We're all from the same village, we'll see each other all the time, and we'll have to help each other out in the future. At times like these, we need to stick together."
The group of people looked somewhat uncomfortable. Everyone knew Song Erya; the villagers had all talked about her behind her back, and each time they did, they did so with a mocking expression.
Only now do I realize that Song Erya is truly a good child.
Song Ning wasn't being selfless; she could grow them herself, and the potatoes grown in her space were large and of good quality, so why bother coming all this way to dig them up?
Many villagers have run out of food, and she's heard that some people have started eating tree bark to survive. She doesn't plan to steal these life-saving things.
The village chief was worried, so he left one person to watch over Zhao Dashan while the others followed Song Ning uphill.
The path above was much flatter, making it easier to walk. After passing through a grove of trees and parting the weeds, you could see the valley inside.
As soon as they got down there, they looked eager, but after what had just happened, they didn't dare to move rashly this time and waited for Song Ning's instructions.
"These things are not poisonous, so you can dig them without worry."
With Song Ning's words, the group picked up hoes and began digging.
What followed was a series of exclamations.
The village chief didn't rush to dig it up. Instead, he picked up the potato, examined it closely, and muttered to himself, "I feel like I've seen this somewhere before..."
After a while, his eyes lit up: "I've seen it in a book before. It's recorded that it comes from a vassal state, has many uses, is easy to grow, and can even withstand hunger."
Song Ning laughed and said, "As long as we can fill our stomachs, we can say that our trip wasn't in vain."
The village chief couldn't help but laugh: "This is a treasure! Our village is saved!"
After everyone had dug up a basket of potatoes, they began to walk down the mountain.
When they reached the place where they had rested, the man looked much better; the hallucinations were gone. However, he vomited the whole way down the mountain and was eventually helped down by two people.
Song Ning didn't want to go through that trouble, so she just picked some wild vegetables on the mountain.
The group was eager to descend the mountain, especially the village chief, who seemed to wish he could fly down.
The village chief was now focused on leading the whole village to dig potatoes. Despite being over fifty years old, he walked very fast, making everyone else's steps lighter.
Meanwhile, the Song family at the foot of the mountain was in complete chaos.
Song Ning and the village chief had only been gone a short while when some people from the Song family came to cause trouble.
As soon as the women and children arrived at the Song family's door, they sat there crying and wailing.
"That heartless Song Erya, how could she do this to us!"
"If my man doesn't come back, I'll make the entire Song family pay with their lives!"
"Song Dahai, if anything happens to my son, I'll kill myself by smashing my head against your house!"
......
The people who followed Song Ning did so voluntarily. Several of them didn't dare tell their families and simply carried their hoes and left. If they had told their families, they definitely wouldn't have been able to go.
The commotion got louder, and since the village chief wasn't there, Li Daniu and his wife rushed over to help when they heard the noise. But there were too many people outside, and the two of them couldn't do anything about it.
The village chief also went up the mountain and couldn't come out to take charge. In no time, the courtyard was surrounded by people, and even the dry branches stuck in the courtyard wall were trampled down.
Song Dahai wanted to say something, but his shouts were immediately drowned out by the wailing, leaving the couple helpless and anxious.
Liu Yuelan was still ill. Hearing the noise outside, she hurriedly got out of bed, but the commotion caused her to faint.
When Sun from the Jiang family heard the noise, she also came and helped Song Dahai and his wife to block the people.
"Everyone, calm down!" Mrs. Sun shouted at the top of her lungs.
"It's all their fault, it's all their family's fault! If it weren't for Song Erya, how could my husband have abandoned us, a widow and orphan, to go up the mountain?" A woman sat on the ground with her child, crying and shouting, her snot and tears streaming down her face. She looked so pitiful.
"I only have one son... If he's gone, how am I supposed to live?"
The courtyard of the Song family's main house was in complete chaos.
Seeing that these people wouldn't listen to anything she said, Sun made a snap decision, went inside to grab a kitchen knife, and came out to swat it twice in front of them.
Everyone is afraid of death, and seeing that the real knife was being used, the voices suddenly fell silent.
"What? Taking advantage of the village chief's absence, you've teamed up to bully people?" Sun shouted.
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